Group launches $1B program to study cancer triggers

An international consortium of researchers has launched a billion-dollar effort to map every way that changes in DNA contributes to the development of tumors. The newly launched International Cancer Genome Consortium says that they hope to complete their work in less than 10 years as they ambitiously map out a project that is being described as the cancer equivalent of the Human Genome Project. Their goal is to make cancer therapy entirely personalized, where each patient's specific genetic makeup can be used to define the most effective therapy. And they will target the development of new cancer therapies to counter the genetic causes of cancer.

"In the past we have had piecemeal views of the cancer genome," said Professor Mike Stratton of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "With the advent of new faster DNA sequencing technologies, the ICGC now has set the hugely ambitious aim of fully sequencing thousands of cancer genomes to catalog all the changes in DNA, and obtain a complete picture of the abnormalities that lead to cancer with the aim of improving diagnosis and treatment."

- see the release
- check out the article in The Times

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